PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewThe snark is not merely entertainment — the portrait is central to the main thesis of Roberts’s engaging and thought-provoking book, one focused on the theatrical politics and often deeply troubling science that shape our definitions of life on Earth.
Melissa L. Sevigny
RaveThe New York Times Book Review[A] cascade of a story, colored by sun and water and driven by courage and determination ... It’s not just the story but the way it’s told that matters here. Unlike those old-time newspaper reporters, Sevigny does not look at her subjects and see women out of place. She sees women doing their job and doing it well.
Matthew Cobb
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewDeeply researched and often deeply troubling ... His conscientious approach can occasionally result in the tone of a citation-rich textbook; Cobb has a scientist’s interest in detail, packing some sections with almost step-by-step descriptions of intricate experiments ... But the level of attention also allows Cobb to illuminate his search for decency and honor in a morally complex field ... The rush to gene-editing brings Cobb to a kind of crisis of conscience. He is a scientist with deep respect for the profession; he’s worked with genetically modified organisms and knows they can be used for good. And yet, he cannot take that last step across the threshold of complete trust.
Frank Close
PositiveThe New York Times... although his publisher describes Elusive as \'the first major biography of Peter Higgs,\' Close seems less sure of that, describing his book as \'not so much a biography of the man but of the boson named after him\'...Close’s description is more accurate. The biographical facts add up to more of a brisk sketch than a richly detailed portrait. This is not to deny that there are moments of sharp and even bitter insight ... It is those three weeks that anchor the real story in this book, a clear, vivid and occasionally even beautiful portrait of a scientific breakthrough: the tale of how a relatively obscure Scotland-based physicist developed a stunning theory, one that would help illuminate the invisible, particulate web that holds our universe together ... Close brings to this story an insider’s knowledge and a combat-ready willingness to defend Higgs against his occasional critics ... this is a very human telling of the ways that we’ve figured out at least some of the mysteries of our universe since the mid-20th century.
Colin Dickey
RaveThe New York Times Book Review... fascinating, troubling, compassionate and — in the end — deeply thoughtful ... Dickey uses such incidents not merely to tell good campfire stories but to illustrate their shared darker themes — a deep distrust of science and government, amplified both by self-promoters and by conspiracy lovers. And he notes that scientific arrogance and excessive government secrecy have fueled these fires ... There’s nothing startlingly new or transformative in these conclusions. But Dickey’s sense of history reminds us of the complex reasons our odder beliefs endure. It’s not that we necessarily want weirdness, he suggests, but we do want wonder, we want the freedom of possibility. So there’s beauty and even comfort in the idea of \'a world beyond our understanding, a world we can glimpse here and there but never fully see.\'
Mira Ptacin
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewAll of this togetherness leads the author to a deep affection for her subjects...[Ptacin] admires their undaunted courage and candor in the face of public mockery and disdain. This gains her some very open access. It also leads her to walk carefully through spiritualism’s fraud-speckled history and to occasionally tip the story into credulity... engaging if somewhat wide-eyed ... such flaws also serve to illuminate Ptacin’s primary point, that this is a place and a story rooted in the very human hope that life is more than a handful of years on a lonely planet. And that if we believe hard enough we may find proof of that, shining in the shadows, just beyond our reach.
Liza Mundy
RaveThe Boston Globe...[a] detailed, fascinating, and sometimes infuriating book, which does much to close that gap in military history ... Some of the 20-something women in the story are downright brilliant in their ability to stare down a code puzzle. But they are also funny, family-oriented, friendly — a wonderful mix of youthful light-heartedness and dedication to the fight. Mundy displays a gift for creating both human portraits and intensely satisfying scenes ... In the end, Mundy’s story is one of women and men, bound together by their wish to serve the country, working side by side as equals, temporary but real. And in that picture is more than a marvel of patriotic effort. It’s a reminder that side-by-side as equals is who we are at our best — and how we do our best.
